An electric car with no exhaust — yawn, we’ve heard it. But an SUV that runs on hydrogen, packs sports-car power and refuels in five minutes — that’s a different conversation. At the BIMOS 2026 motor show in Busan, Hyundai rolled out exactly that kind of car: the second-generation NEXO. It sits in its own dedicated NEXO zone, which the brand translates roughly as ‘the Utility Cycle Lab’.
The stand itself looks almost like a children’s storybook. On the wall, a cartoon shows tossed-out apples and other waste being funneled into a Waste-to-Hydrogen plant, turning into hydrogen, then ending up in the car’s tank. But behind the cartoon lies a very serious idea from Hyundai and HTWO: produce hydrogen from organic waste — food scraps, manure, even sewage sludge. Sounds wild. And yet that’s exactly how Hyundai sees the future of fuel.
The NEXO itself is the new production-spec hydrogen SUV. Hyundai unveiled it in spring 2025 at the Seoul Mobility Show, then released full specs ahead of its global launch. The body has gone sharper and more angular, with a thin horizontal light bar up front, H-shaped daytime running lights and pixel graphics borrowed from the brand’s newest models.
But the real change is under the skin. The new NEXO’s total system output is 190 kW — that’s 258 hp. Zero to 100 km/h takes 7.8 seconds, a full second and a half quicker than its predecessor. Hydrogen is stored in three Type IV tanks at 700 bar pressure, for a total capacity of 6.69 kg. WLTP range — a claimed 826 km. Refueling takes around five minutes. That’s the real trump card a hydrogen car holds against a regular EV: no hours-long charging session, just a quick stop that feels like a normal gas station.
What makes the Busan reveal matter is the framing. Hyundai isn’t trying to explain hydrogen through chemistry equations. It’s pitching a simple, almost domestic image: turn your trash into fuel, then drive hundreds of kilometers with zero emissions. Sounds like science fiction. But one inconvenient question stays unanswered — will those refueling stations actually appear near the buyer? Until they do, NEXO’s fate hangs in the balance: icon of a new era, or expensive technological curiosity.
